The international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin for overseeing the abduction of Ukrainian children, sending Russia another significant step on the path to becoming a pariah state.
But enraged Vladimir Putin has criticised the International Criminal Court’s outrageous decision, but one expert said it could quicken Putin’s removal as Russian leader.
The ICC on Friday called for Vladimir Putin’s arrest and accused the dictator of perpetrating war crimes by abducting Ukrainian children from their homes and deporting them to Russia to be given to Russian families.
It also issued a warrant on Friday for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Russia’s ‘Children’s Rights Commissioner, on the same charges.
The Kremlin criticised the court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, saying that it was outrageous and unacceptable, but in contrast, Ukraine hailed the decision and said the wheels of justice were turning.
The Kremlin insisted that any decision of the ICC was null and void with regard to Russia as Moscow didn’t recognise the court’s jurisdiction.
Sir Geoffrey Nice, who was the lead prosecutor at former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic’s trial, said it was particularly important that the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin.
He suggested that Vladimir Putin being labelled and treated as a criminal could inspire a change in the regime or encourage the process of replacement and that there was enough information seeping out to show that there were some that were dissatisfied with his leadership.
He added that it was important because this man was now, as many would say he should have been a few weeks after the war started, labelled as a criminal.
Sir Geoffrey added that the war in Ukraine is now a ‘right, just war’ that is being ‘criminally led’.
Alexander Bastrykin, the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, reacted to the ICC’s decision by proposing to create an ‘international court’ for ‘Ukrainian war criminals’, following similar comments from Vladimir Putin’s associates on state television.
The ICC’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan said hundreds of Ukrainian children had been taken from orphanages and children’s homes to Russia.
He said that many of those children, they alleged, had since been given up for adoption in the Russian Federation.
Vladimir Putin, the poisoner should do the honourable thing and hand himself in and clear his conscience, although Putin’s cards are marked, and his people should give him up.
I wouldn’t even be surprised if a price has been put on his head – he needs to be stopped nonetheless because he’s transformed Russia into a kleptocracy where he and his friends have robbed everything, and conscripted people to die in senseless wars. The Russian state is basically a mafia, and he’s the leader.
Now they can style Vladimir Putin’s child snatcher Ms Lvova-Belova as Mary Poppins.
If they can’t arrest him, they could still convict him without him even being present, either way, Vladimir Putin is finished outside of Russia and a few rogue states, although I don’t think he was planning on visiting Disneyland anytime soon.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 